rlh04d wrote:mvcfan wrote:bradley_brave1989 wrote:There was numerous times Detroit was willing to give up drives and open lay-ups for what ever reason.
I would speculate that since they only give 7 people any minutes and they try to run, they give out a lot of effort on offense and they conserve their defensive effort. When they play teams who aren't athletic and not deep, they get away with it. WSU played 10 players and pushed them on both ends of the court with full court defense and offense. DM couldn't hang with that. The DM coach even said that WSU played too fast of a pace for his team in his interview after the game.
I thought that would likely be a problem for Detroit in that game. Having only 6 players able to play any real minutes, versus 10 for Wichita State, meant that a fast pace was going to absolutely destroy them by the end of the game.
I'm actually kind of surprised WSU hasn't used that strategy more often. We subbed in that game early and often, with little dropoff from one player to another. Plenty of other teams have more overall talented players, but I think very few have the quality of depth we have.
Unfortunately, I think WSU's problem with fouls probably takes away our ability to play like that Detroit game more often. Without the regular stop in play, we're able to go full speed, subbing constantly, and leave teams in the dust by the end of the game. Being able to go full speed on offense, then switch back and put their bodies on the line on defense the way they were, is fully based on depth ... I don't think any starting five can keep up that pace for 35 minutes + a game.
I think that the reason that we were able to play fast paced for an entire game is because Detroit plays that way. Everybody in the Valley plays a half court game. We're the only team to want to push it. Others like Bradley will try to play that way more in the future. Most teams sag, play some zone, and try to extend their offensive possessions and defensive possessions.
